Steam affecting spotting hit/missess in low light

Wilderness Blacktail said:
I prefer bullets with that style of performance too. I used to run 100gr gamekings in a 243, man that thing worked great near n far. Hornady SSTs did great for me too, and in copper times I used to use DRT bullets before they stopped shipping to california.

Im working up loads for cutting edge maximus bullets to get back some of that.
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You may also consider Hammer's ! Their designed to shed their petals, giving you that large initial wound, with the shank continuing on giving a very deep/long wound channel!

Oh and….sorry to hear about your bad luck! ☹️ memtb
 
lyotehunter said:
Where are thermal binoculars or spotting scopes illegal. You can't shoot them
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You can't hunt big game with thermal or NV gear here in WA state, and in many other states across the country (Oregon, Colorado, etc.). I think all of this is silly. If they're worried about night shooting/poaching, let people use thermal binoculars or monoculars but not scopes (not mounted on a firearm) during deer season, and of course hunting deer or other big game at night is illegal in every state as far as I know.

The advantage I see for thermal is that it makes spotting game much easier, especially for us older hunters who don't have the vision we did when we were younger. I used to have 20/10 vision, now it's 20/25 and weaker in low light or low contrast situations. A thermal monocular makes squirrel hunting feasible for me... I still have to spot and stalk, and every squirrel I've spotted has been frozen because it spotted me first.

Here's a link listing states where thermal or NV is partially or totally restricted.
 
ObiJohn said:
You can't hunt big game with thermal or NV gear here in WA state, and in many other states across the country (Oregon, Colorado, etc.). I think all of this is silly. If they're worried about night shooting/poaching, let people use thermal binoculars or monoculars but not scopes (not mounted on a firearm) during deer season, and of course hunting deer or other big game at night is illegal in every state as far as I know.

The advantage I see for thermal is that it makes spotting game much easier, especially for us older hunters who don't have the vision we did when we were younger. I used to have 20/10 vision, now it's 20/25 and weaker in low light or low contrast situations. A thermal monocular makes squirrel hunting feasible for me... I still have to spot and stalk, and every squirrel I've spotted has been frozen because it spotted me first.

Here's a link listing states where thermal or NV is partially or totally restricted.
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So you've gone from a squirrel hunter to a squirrel shooter? For me, finding/spotting game is the fun and challenging part of hunting. I'd much rather ease through the woods looking for squirrels in the tree tops vs finding them with a thermal. That'd be like cheating.
 
Wilderness Blacktail said:
Yeah it was a rough one. 6arc, 95lrx. Impact velocity 2050, barnes said 1700 for 1.7x expansion so exp should be normal at this speed.
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Coppers like velocity. The 6 ARC is not a speed demon…at all. I'd go cup and core in that cartridge if it were me. If you did hit the animal, I'd be wondering about pencil'n.

ObiJohn said:
This is why I'm against the laws banning thermal devices and electronic scopes for big game hunting. With a thermal monocular you could have grabbed it and scanned and seen the deer, whether it was still running or because it dropped. With a video recording capable scope you could review the film to look for a reaction.
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No
 
If you are set on staying with that 6 ARC I would look hard at the 70 grain Hammer Hunters. You should be able to push them way faster than the 95 LRX and the tip fragments to create more wound channels. The BC will be drastically lower than the LRX though.
I agree with @FireFlyFishing, if you did hit him with that Barnes LRX at that velocity, it could have penciled. I experienced penciling with Barnes bullets on a couple bucks in NorCal. Fortunately both were recovered but it made me switch to Hammer bullets, run lighter for caliber pills, and push velocity.
 
FireFlyFishing said:
Coppers like velocity. The 6 ARC is not a speed demon…at all. I'd go cup and core in that cartridge if it were me. If you did hit the animal, I'd be wondering about pencil'n.


No
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Small bore @ near minimal velocity, small(ish) big game animal, as much as it pains me to suggest this…..a good job for a cup and core or a mono that sheds "petals" at a somewhat reduced velocity.

Or my recommended solution….. a substantially larger caliber bullet at a substantially higher velocity, using the aforementioned "petal shedding" bullet!

A win, win, win answer……for the WIN! 😉 memtb
 
Wilderness Blacktail said:
Learned something this last weekend. Got a shot at a nice buck in the last hour of light as the sky darkened with storm clouds.
Had specifically picked the rifle so I could spot hits being all alone and knowing itd be storming and so much harder to track and blood trail.
Lined up my crosshairs on him at 400 and touched it off. And looked like a muzzeloader went off. I had not figured that in.
I was dialed in to 16x for ID as there were a handful of deer, a few were bucks but shoulda dialed back out to 8x which is where i normall shoot as i can see soo much more.
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The bright flash you saw was caused by powder burning beyond the end of the barrel. It's called muzzle flash and all that powder burning out there is wasted energy and does nothing to increase velocity or energy. Either get a longer barrel so that powder is useful, or if you hand load, change to a faster burning powder or decrease the amount of powder you are loading to where there is little or no muzzle flash. Powder is not cheap these days, no sense using more than can be used usefully. Muzzle flash, whether you can see it or not is wasted energy.
 
Bravo 4 said:
I'm curious as to why it looked like a muzzleloader went off, and how steam was mentioned. Did you have water in the barrel?
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Using my tried and (un)proven SWAG system……the steam, that he thought he saw, may have been a reflection of the muzzle flash off of high humidity, moisture laden air or even a reflection off of the dark cloud background! memtb
 
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Teri Anne said:
The bright flash you saw was caused by powder burning beyond the end of the barrel. It's called muzzle flash and all that powder burning out there is wasted energy and does nothing to increase velocity or energy. Either get a longer barrel so that powder is useful, or if you hand load, change to a faster burning powder or decrease the amount of powder you are loading to where there is little or no muzzle flash. Powder is not cheap these days, no sense using more than can be used usefully. Muzzle flash, whether you can see it or not is wasted energy.
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I thought of that too, but it's a 6 arc. It would have to be a pistol length barrel to worry anything about unburnt powder. With a remaining velocity of over 2k at 400 yards he'd be running it at rifle velocity.
 
cajun said:
Personally I don't get the logic of shooting a small caliber so I can spot my shots in a situation where terrain or in this case weather makes tracking difficult. I would rather shoot a more powerful round with an expanding bullet that makes sure the critter won't go far. Not talking about an uber mag here but a 140-160 gr 7mm bullet going 3000-3200 fps with the right bullet is deadly at that range. Not throwing rocks here I just don't get it. If you're required to shoot cooper that is all the more reason to put some speed behind it. Make that one shot count.
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I get that. Was going back n forth about that myself. I always do. Ive had it work both ways, mostly before I was dialing and running a lightweight 30-06 with 165s. That baby jumped some lol.

So i prefer to spot the results, that way if wind drift is more or less than figured I can send a second very quickly.

On this I wanted to take either my 270WSM but I recently had to change primers because I cant find 250s and the group opened up too much, no time to fix it.

2nd choice was 6.5cm but its 50mm obj scope dont fit in my rifle scabbard n im worried itll mess up and Id miss.

Either of those two rifles have recoil/weight/stock design where I can both spot my shots and send more umph. Thats my ideal for high country hunts.
 
Willys said:
This is what happens when you shoot smaller and smaller rifles at longer and longer distances. Eventully you lose an animal and realize you've pushed the limits too far. Go up to 6.5 prc with can/brake and you would be frying tenderloins right now.
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Theres definitely a limit. I love the 6.5PRC. Cant run a can and wont run brake tho. Just in case i ever spotted one and jumped off and took a quick shot n blew my horse's ear drums out, or my dog. ..
 
memtb said:
You may also consider Hammer's ! Their designed to shed their petals, giving you that large initial wound, with the shank continuing on giving a very deep/long wound channel!

Oh and….sorry to hear about your bad luck! ☹️ memtb
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Definitely! I love hammer hunters! I had great luck with em in my 6.5PRC my nephew talked me out of. Very quick kills. I think the new tipped ones might be ideal for slower cartridges like this.
 

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